FTE is a mailing list for fans of the Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan and was named after her 3rd studio album "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy."

The original FTE list was started by Anthony Baxter back in 1994. Up until October of 1999, Anthony had been the only list-owner and maintainer of FTE. But, due to circumstances, Anthony was unable to keep over-seeing FTE. FTE was moved to Smoe.org in October of 1999 where it's now being run and maintained by John Stewart and Jenni Knoff. John and Jenni, as well as the entire FTE list wish to thank Anthony for all his hard work with the list over the years. Good luck in your future endeavors Anthony!

Okay, back to business. The number of posts on FTE can vary, depending on what's going on at the present time. (I.E. Sarah touring, or Lilith Fair, etc.) Sometimes, it's not uncommon to see around 100 messages per day on the list, so be prepared to handle it. List mail usually does go down though, when Sarah's on hiatus.

FTE is an unmoderated list and it usually goes without saying that almost anything and everything seems to be discussed on the list. Topics in the past have ranged from armpit hair, to current event issues, to other artist's music, etc.

In addition to the regular main version of FTE, there is also a digest version available.

What's the difference between the main and digest versions? The main version simply "bounces" each post made to the list, back to each person that is subscribed to the list. The digest version collects, or "bundles" a number of posts together and mails them all out in one easy email. The digest version is ideal for anyone with limited time, email access, etc.


List-members of FTE are called, Fumblers! (Easy enough, eh?) ;)

A Fumble Rumble is a real life gathering of Fumblers that is usually planned for Sarah concerts and/or Lilith Fair. But, Fumble Rumbles have also been known to pop up for no other reason other than the simple fact that there hasn't been one for a while.


Subscribing and unsubscribing is actually quite easy.

To subscribe to FTE: send an email to [email protected]
with these words for the body of your email: subscribe

To subscribe to the digest version of FTE: send an email to [email protected]
with these words for the body of your email: subscribe

After you subscribe to FTE, you'll get a confirmation email which will ask you to reply to it, just to validate that it was actually you who signed yourself up to FTE. This is to prevent other people from signing you up to a mailing list that you might not want to be on in the first place. Just follow the instructions in the confirmation email and you'll be on your way!

To unsubscribe from FTE: send an email to [email protected]
with these words for the body of your email: unsubscribe

To unsubscribe from the digest version of FTE: send an email to [email protected]
with these words for the body of your email: unsubscribe

Details for unsubbing from the list are also attached to the bottom of each post that's sent to the list.

Please do not send your subscribe or unsubscribe email to the entire list ([email protected]). Send it to the above addresses. If you have any questions about subscribing or unsubscribing, please email either John or Jenni for help, or refer back to this page.


To send a message, or post, to the entire list so everyone can read it, simply send your email to f[email protected] Even if you're on the digest version of the list, this is the address you must use to send your posts to.


There could be several reasons why you're not receiving any list mail. The first could be that that the server is down for some reason. Sometimes this happens when work needs to be done, etc. The list-owners will try to contact the list with any scheduled down-times, if they should ever happen.

The second reason could be that you have indeed been unsubbed from FTE.

Why would this happen???

If you're using an ISP that has a mail quota on it, (I.E., AOL, Juno, WebTV, etc.) and you have hit your limit on emails, then every message from FTE that gets sent by you, gets "bounced" back to John and Jenni. This is a hassle and a very time consuming thing considering the size of the list. It might happen that you will be unsubscribed from the list if there are continuous mail bounces.

If you're not receiving any email, the first thing you should do is check to make sure that you're still subscribed to FTE. To do this, send an email to [email protected] with the words, who fumbling-towards-ecstasy, for the body of your email. (Or, who fumbling-towards-ecstasy-digest, if you're on the digest version.) If you don't see your name/email address anywhere on the list, then you've been unsubbed from the list. Simply resubscribe back to the list using the instructions above and all's well!

If you're going to be away for an extended period of time, it's usually proper protocol to unsubscribe from the list while you're gone and then resubscribe once you are back. This just saves any problems in case your mail starts to get "bounced" back to the list-owners while you're gone.


While rules are kind of boring, they are needed on a list of this size.

First off, there are some rules from Smoe themselves (the people that graciously house FTE for us) that we need to abide by. These rules are as follows:

If you repeatedly violate either one of these rules, you will be unsubbed from FTE.

Here are some other general "rules" or suggested guidelines for FTE:


The FTE list owners may be contacted at the following email address:

[email protected]

or

John Stewart - [email protected]

Jenni Knoff - [email protected]

Please feel free to contact either John or Jenni if you have any questions, problems or concerns.


Site developed by Jenni Knoff
Maintained by Jenni Knoff and John Stewart

John and Jenni not only wish to thank Anthony Baxter for all his dedication and hard work with the Fumbling-Towards-Ecstasy list over the years, but we wish to thank Jeff Wasilko and the people at Smoe who agreed to give FTE it's new home.


Last updated June 11, 2000